Katie's Little Surprise.

We’ve had an unusually wet winter this year, but the past two or three weeks have been dry and the soggy landscape put back to its normal state. The temporary pools that formed in woodland dells and field depressions dried up, the sloping path in my favourite wood lost its greasiness and became comfortable again, and the meadow ground was once more firm to the tread.

Last night we had rain, courtesy of Storm Katie, and I knew nothing about until I walked the bounds of the Shire today. There’s debris all over the roads, areas of tarmac have been lifted and broken up, and the temporary pools are back and more extensive than at any time during the winter. Best of all, though: a large stretch of the river valley is flooded. Never in the ten years I’ve lived here – through the record wet summer of 2012, several wet winters, and periods of high snow melt during the cold winters – have I seen that piece of landscape under water. And all the result of one night’s rain that I wasn’t even aware of.